These are my thoughts on the Banting Beginners 10 Commandments…

Before I begin, please know that this advice and these thoughts are aimed at me first! My Banting journey is one month old and I have lost 6 kilos. I know I could have lost more if I had listened to this advice from the beginning, but no! I must obviously need to learn the hard way at times by doing it wrong before it goes right.

Back I went to the book – The Real Meal Revolution by Tim Noakes et al – to read the Banting Beginners 10 Commandments once more with feeling, to meditate on each one and see where I am with the rules.

1 Eat Enough Fat – Fat is an Appetite Suppressant which gives you Energy for Longer

Fat is the luxury we have been denying ourselves ever since the FDA gave us the Food Pyramid. We need not fear it and we should love it. It has zero carbs! Butter is good stuff. Coconut oil, (good article here http://authoritynutrition.com/why-is-coconut-oil-good-for-you/) olive oil, avocado oil, ghee, animal fats. When we cook bacon, beef, lamb, chicken and pork, the fat that is rendered can be used for the next cooking session. It saves money and you don’t need to support the corporates that flood the market with their unhealthy vegetable oils.

2 Eat Enough Vegetables – Eat Your Greens with Every Meal

Leafy greens are so easy to grow for yourself, even in containers. My herbs, green leaf spinach, kale, chard, pak choy, lettuces – they all grow successfully in pots on my veranda. They grow in the garden as well, with companion plants to keep them healthy. There are also beans in a raised window box climbing up a simple hand-made trellis. Purple heirloom beans at that. No GMO here. Potatoes (for the hubby and other non-Banters) are growing in large pots and there are even cucumbers growing in hanging baskets. But do I eat my greens every meal? No. So I shall concentrate on getting that right.

3 Don’t Snack – Drink water, herb teas, meat broth with fat and marrow, and filter coffee with cream.

If a snack attack sneaks up on you, drink water or herb teas first as we often mistake thirst for hunger. Meat broths are really easy to make especially in the slow cooker. Put water in a pot with meaty soup bones with fat, marrow and all. Add a bunch of parsley and herbs, a bay leaf, an onion studded with 3 cloves, a couple of garlic cloves, a carrot and a stalk of celery and you will have a tasty broth that will assuage any munchies. My personal favourite is a jug of celery sticks in water in the fridge. When I open that fridge door and stare in wondering what to eat, there they are! More often than not I will open the jar of mayo and scoop out a blob. Low carb, crunchy, juicy and a good fast food.

4 Don’t Lie to Yourself – Be Informed, Carbs Count

Don’t fool yourself and don’t guess, count. Know what you are putting in your system. A good idea is to make a weekly meal plan and a Banting Pantry List from which you can plan your shopping. I am only beginning to get this right now. I have lost so many vegetables by buying too many and not getting to them before they die of old age. (A case of spending irresponsibly without proper planning.)

5 Don’t Over- or Under-Eat – One Serving per Meal, One Meal at a Time

Tummies stretch when they are given too much food. Then they want more. Give it just enough. It is said that your stomach is the size of your fist…well I don’t know about that, but I know that we know when we have had enough, if we listen to our bodies and eat slowly. We need to give our tums time to tell us when they are full. I am still practising that, so one day I will get it right.

6 Don’t Eat Too Much Protein – 80g of Meat per Meal

What?!! I can eat 100 g of biltong in one sitting! And now that I can eat fats, my husband picks out the best fatty biltong he can find, much to his delight. 80g of meat per meal? I don’t know. I eat more than that with a steak of around 200g. Should I eat less protein and more fat? (Yes.) A smaller steak with more butter perhaps? (Good idea.) Protein shake once a day? Chia seeds on my salad? These are ideas to work on.

7 Be Alert – Read the Labels/Packaging

Not long ago I bought some plain cream cheese and a couple of flavoured ones, (mustard, ham etc) only to find out at home that the carb counts were way higher than the plain one so I gave the flavoured ones away. (Another case of money irresponsibly spent by not reading the labels!) Shopping needs to be done on the outside aisles of the supermarkets where everything is fresh. Skip the middle aisles. The produce in the inner aisles usually has mysterious E numbers and ingredients that are hard to pronounce, and so much of the packaged food has sugar in it and by now we all know that refined sugar is a poison.

8 Avoid Too Many Fruits and Nuts – Berries and Nuts have Carbs & Carbs Count

Berries are the lowcarb dieters’ best fruit and nuts the nicest fast food for me. However, half a cup of strawberries amounts to six grams of carbohydrates while twelve almonds counts three carbs, six macadamias two carbs. Go slow. I found out the hard way. Too many nuts, no weight loss. I soak almonds overnight to break down the enzyme inhibitors and then dry them in a little dehydrator. You can also dry them in a low oven or in the sun. Or not. Any way you do it, I think soaked almonds are really tasty. And good for you.

9 Control Your Dairy – If your Weight Loss is Stalling, Limit the Dairy

I would eat cheese every day at every meal if I could. I love it, but if I eat too much I know all about it on the scale. Milk in tea or coffee, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese – all these can call a halt in the weight loss proceedings. Choose carefully…and count those carbs!

10 Be Strong – Play the Movie of your Success in your Mind. See it. Feel it. Be it.

And if you don’t like what you see in your own movie, change it!

Rock on with the Revolution…